The Show Must Go On
In some ways that kind of describes my weekend. Not that church is a show…just that the saying held true to form. If you follow my Twitter or read my post on Saturday, I shared that I received some horrible news early Saturday morning. Thanks to all of you who have been praying throughout this weekend and continue to do so.
The Resnick family is one of the most involved families in our entire church and early Saturday morning/late Friday night they lost their dad Scott in a plane crash. Here is a news release with a video about Scott Resnick’s death, and here is a great blog post with a couple videos of Scott. They do a much better job of describing Scott and what happened then I could. Janet also wrote a great post on what the morning at Sunset meant to her.
UPDATE: KOIN News ran a great story on Scott during their 5:30pm newscast and even included an interview with Sunset’s high school director Mike Giering (starts about 8 minutes into the video).
Scott’s wife, Holly, was at worship team practice on Thursday and was scheduled to sing this weekend. I missed singing with her this morning. Many people in our church were and are being affected in a deep way, and the worship ministry has a close relationship with their family so coming and leading worship yesterday was not an easy task.
After something like this you go between feeling like playing music and singing is the last thing you would want to do and then feeling like it is the only thing in the world to do.
Playing and leading the congregation when one of our fellow team members was going through so much was not easy. I am so proud of the band and vocalists for the way they contributed to the morning. For us, the show needed to go on because being together as a community provided a chance to worship and grieve as a community.
In the end we switched up a few songs in each service in order for all the songs to fit the mood of the day. Both Jay and Barb did an incredible job of leading in the moment. Barb even scrapped her entire message to speak on a more poignant topic: grief and suffering in John 11.
I felt a different vibe at Sunset. It wasn’t an “us” and “them” vibe, it was a “we” vibe. There was a sense of “we’re in this together and nothing else really matters.” I hope we can build on that feeling of community.
What are some lessons you have learned while leading through grief?
Those of you who were there yesterday, how would you sum up the morning?
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Tyler Braun.
I hope that community you sense is built up too.
It is a blessing that I’ve never been in the position of leading through grief like this (when my father in law died, we were living elsewhere and I wasn’t worship leading). I’ve led in tough situations before, such as when I was unemployed for a long period last year, but nothing like this. I can honestly say I looked forward to leading when I was unemployed because it was so refreshing – it taught me to enjoy the moments a lot more, be they on the platform, or in rehearsals, or wherever.
Continuing to pray for all of you.
I can relate with the appreciating the moments for sure. Every emotion and moment feels heightened right now.
Yesterday was absolutely the most touching overall service I can remember at Sunset. Truly wonderful job by all under really brutal circumstances.
Brutal, beautiful. I bawled for all of it…Holly, kids, you all. This kind of grief is the great leveller–we all have it–and I think that ties us together differently than a “normal” Sunday worship…more like at a cellular level. You all were phenomenal and it was a beautiful testament. -K-
We were at the 11, and it was so moving and well done. Thank you to the entire worship team for following His leading and taking such care with the service. It was heart wrenching and beautiful.
I felt that people sincerely care and it was a great testimony that I shared with my friends as we went on a hike after the 9:00 service.
When normally people feel like just a number in big churches), it is a great testimony that a church of Sunset’s size, people are still close and care for each other in times of needs and it is all about us together as the whole church.
Tyler – it was a tangible worship service. You could feel grief, pain, suffering, hope, community, peace, grace and praise. Jay and Barb had their finest hours of leading. The entire worship team and staff was an awesome picture of what we do..we contiue praising despite the storm. Thanks for serving while grieving.
And thank you for serving at the 5.
Tyler, you know that I understand your grief and the pain of continuing to lead in the midst of church tragedy. Slightly different circumstances, but I have been in those shoes and it is very hard.
When our pastor’s wife committed suicide on a Saturday night, I thought I would physically collapse during rehearsal the next morning. Honestly, my grief was so deep and so violent it floored me physically. Yet I struggled on – with the help of my team – and we did lead worship. Here’s a blurb from a post I wrote about leading during tragedy:
“It is easy to lead worship on Easter. Everyone wants to party that day. It is easy to lead worship when we all “feel the Spirit” and are rejoicing. But it is much harder to lead worship when we have such heavy questions and grief swirling around inside us that we are unsure that we can even continue to stand, much less praise God. In those moments we have to ask our selves, “What do I truly believe about God?” and “Do I really mean what I am singing?”. It’s a gut check. I’ve never felt the weight of leading worship like I did at this time and in the weeks that followed. I “grew up” as a minister of worship in those moments.”
If you’d like to read the entire post to see a more full account of my thoughts, you can read here:
http://aworshipfulheart.typepad.com/a_worshipful_heart/2008/05/leading-worship.html
Tyler, I’ve been praying for your faith family and this family in particular all weekend. We grieve with you. If you need to talk, give me a call. And whatever you do, do deny or ignore your own grief. Let me know if I can help you or your church in any way.
Tyler, here’s something else I wrote about leading in the aftermath, when I felt personally affected. This is a more generic article, but talks about leading through brokenness. You might find some of those points to be helpful.
http://www.theworshipcommunity.com/leading-through-brokenness/
Again, if you need to talk, let me know.
Thanks for sharing this link Jan.
My thoughts after the 2 morning services on Sunday:
http://melindalgroth.blogspot.com/2009/05/comfort-and-community.html
dude, ive been out so im just seeing this…
soo sorry to hear it and I am praying for you guys and for his family
I wished I could have been there.